BOU AVENUEDry Fork Coyote, Spooky And Brimstone GulchesComing out of Capitol Reef National Park on
13 October 2016, Zosia Zgolak and I stopped in Boulder, Utah to fill up
with gas, water and food before heading south into Grand
Staircase-Escalante National Monument to camp at the trailhead of the
next hike on our agenda--Peek-a-boo, Spooky and Brimstone Gulches.
I drew my inspiration for this hike from 100 Hikes in Utah by
Steve Mann and Rhett Olson. From Highway 12, we turned south onto Hole-in-the-Rock gravel road and
drove for about 42 kilometres to the turnoff for the trailhead.
There are actually two separate parking areas--one for low-clearance
vehicles about one kilometre from the Hole-in-the-Rock road and one for
high-clearance vehicles about another 1.5 kilometres further.
Despite some ruts in the connecting road, I managed to drive my Honda
CR-V to the second parking area without too much difficulty. Zosia
and I enjoyed a nice dinner near the trailhead before retiring for the
night.

Sonny and Zosia enjoy some beer during
dinner at the trailhead.

The next morning, 14 October 2016, Zosia and I awoke before sunrise and
ate a quick breakfast before commencing our hike. We followed a good
trail briefly before it disappeared among the slickrock cliffs above
Dry Fork Coyote Gulch. Zosia and I briefly got separated here trying to follow
numerous cairns, but we eventually regrouped and made it down safely into
the main wash. Almost immediately, we spotted an obvious canyon which we
thought was the start of Peek-a-boo Gulch. We entered this canyon and
easily hiked to its end about 1.2 kilometres to the west before
backtracking to the entrance. I would later learn that this canyon
is actually
part of Dry Fork Coyote Gulch, and we completely missed
the start of Peek-a-boo Gulch on our way to Spooky Gulch.

Whatever Zosia
and I missed out in Peek-a-boo Gulch was more than compensated for by our
visit to Spooky Gulch. This was, by far, the most thrilling slot canyon I
have ever entered. The canyon walls converged quickly soon after
we entered Spooky Gulch, and we had to remove our packs and resort to
side-shuffling to proceed further. It eventually became too cumbersome to
carry our packs by hand, and we simply left them behind in order to move
more efficiently through the narrowest parts of the canyon. Some
passages
required hands-on scrambling, and one section under a chockstone was
particularly difficult to surmount. We eventually emerged from the far end of the canyon,
and unaware that a
loop with Peek-a-boo Gulch was possible via an overland trail, we simply retraced our steps
back through Spooky Gulch for a second round of canyoneering fun (we had
to retrace our steps anyway to retrieve our packs). Although we had earlier encountered a young
couple--the only people we had seen all morning--heading in the opposite
direction in Spooky Gulch, we did not run into anybody else on our way out.
In retrospect, Zosia and I were quite fortunate to have Spooky Gulch
pretty much all to ourselves.

After the thrills of Spooky Gulch, visiting Brimstone Gulch was a bit
anticlimactic. The much longer approach to Brimstone Gulch was
somewhat tedious, and Zosia and I were beginning to wonder if we were
even on the right track until we once again ran into the couple that we
had met earlier. They had just visited Brimstone Gulch but had not
gotten very far before pools of water forced them to turn around.
Zosia and I chatted at length with them before continuing into Brimstone
Gulch. As expected, we only managed to go a short distance into the
canyon before our progress was stymied by the aforementioned pools of water.
While it would have been possible to wade through the water and continue
further, we were, by this time, eager to return to the trailhead and move
on.

Instead of returning the way we came along Dry Fork Coyote
Gulch, Zosia and I took a short cut back to the trailhead by following a
side wash and then hiking cross-country. When we
returned to my car, we were a bit astonished to see the high-clearance
vehicle parking area full. Glad to have avoided the crowds in the
various canyons, we promptly left the parking area with
intentions of squeezing in another canyon hike further to the north.
Unfortunately, I got a flat tire somewhere along Hole-in-the-Rock road,
and because of the bumpiness of the road, I was not aware of the flat
tire until I saw pieces of rubber flying up from the back of my car!
Sure enough, the driver's side rear tire was completely shredded. A
bit dumbfounded at my terrible luck (this was my
second tire destroyed in
a little over a year), I nevertheless got down to work and changed the
flat tire in about 15 minutes. Because the spare was a "donut", I had to be extra
cautious on the remaining drive out along Hole-in-the-Rock road.
Although the road is well-traveled, it would have been highly
inconvenient to be stranded in such a remote area with limited cel
phone coverage.

Zosia and I both breathed a little easier once we hit the pavement of
Highway 12 and entered the nearby town of Escalante. Unfortunately,
the auto repair shop in town did not carry the right size of tire for my
car, but the helpful mechanic suggested that we continue west to Bryce
Canyon City where there is a much bigger auto garage. Luckily, this
garage had a single tire of the right size left, and we arrived early
enough for them to replace my tire before they closed for the day.
While waiting for the new tire to be installed, Zosia and I crossed the
highway looking for public showers, and after a bit of searching and
running around, we managed to find one at a nearby campground.
Feeling clean and refreshed, we picked up my car and subsequently spent
the next couple of hours doing laundry, buying groceries, and eating
dinner (in an unoccupied RV campsite behind the laundromat!) before
heading out of town to a nearby rest area to sleep for the night.

This turned out to be a wild day full of highs and lows, but through
it all, Zosia proved to be a most resilient and sympathetic companion.
I am grateful to have shared such an adventurous ride with her.

The morning sky above the trailhead is very colourful
on this day.

Sonny descends the trail leading to
Dry Fork Coyote Gulch.

Photo courtesy of Zosia
Zgolak

Sonny unwittingly approaches an
obvious canyon thinking that it is the entrance to Peek-a-boo Gulch.
The canyon is actually part of Dry Fork Coyote Gulch.

Photo courtesy of Zosia
Zgolak

The canyon of Dry Fork Coyote Gulch is
still worth exploring.

This big and bizarre insect is known
as a Jerusalem cricket (thanks go to Bob Spirko for identifying this
insect).

At the far end of the canyon of Dry
Fork Coyote Gulch, Sonny tries to reconcile what he sees with what is
described in the guidebook. The Straight Cliffs (Fiftymile
Mountain) can be seen on the horizon.

Photo courtesy of Zosia
Zgolak

Zosia approaches the entrance to
Spooky Gulch.

The walls of Spooky Gulch converge
quickly on Zosia.

Zosia carries her pack in hand while
squeezing through a very narrow section of Spooky Gulch.

Sonny sits at the bottom of a steep,
narrow chute.

Photo courtesy of Zosia
Zgolak

Zosia looks down from the top of the
chute.

Sonny awkwardly squeezes through
another narrow section.

Photo courtesy of Zosia
Zgolak

Sonny climbs out of a hole created by
a chockstone. This is probably the hardest obstacle to surmount
in Spooky Gulch.

Photo courtesy of Zosia
Zgolak

Zosia ducks under a natural arch
inside Spooky Gulch.

Zosia emerges from the far end of
Spooky Gulch.

Zosia down-climbs a tricky step below
the chockstone.

Sonny wonders if it would be possible
to stem his way up to the top of the canyon.